It takes constant vigilance by ordinary peopleResidents Will No Longer Tolerate Being 2nd Class Citizens
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive
Not to be outdone by the missteps of Mason County and Port of Shelton officials, the City of Shelton has picked up the biomass banner for special interests.
Despite a yearlong battle waged by concerned citizens to steer our community to more constructive economic reforms, our political leaders insist on beating this dead horse back to life.
I speak, of course of the recent Mitigated Determination of Non-significance (MDNS), the City recently issued via the Simpson/Solomon SEPA application, all but giving full blessing to a 31MW biomass fueled cogeneration plant to be constructed smack dab downtown Shelton.
What part of “We don’t want biomass in our community” do you suppose our officials don’t understand? Could it be the air and water pollution part? Or the health hazard part? Maybe they just can’t see how siting an environmentally destructive, esthetically intrusive and unhealthy incinerator in the most densely populated area of Mason County could possibly be a bad thing. Then again, why should they; they’re the ones holding us in this economic mess.
Time and again we’ve learned that reliance on a single industry for economic stability has proven to be a dismal failure, diversity being the only means by which our community will ever achieve financial stability against the inevitable fortunes and failings of the marketplace.
What will it take for our officials to wake up, a property tax rebellion? Why support a governing body that subordinates the will of its own citizenry to that of special interest? If citizens don’t stand up for their rights, those rights will be taken away as surely as they have in other countries just now trying to regain them. Freedom is anything but free; it takes constant vigilance by ordinary people against special interests and political corruption. If history has taught us anything, it is that democracy may well be the best form of government, but it is not for the faint of heart.
Residents will no longer tolerate being treated like second class citizens in their own community.
Photo by Christine
SHELTON BLOG NOTE:
Next City of Shelton Commission Meeting:
Monday, April 4th, 6:00 PM at the Civic Center
Let's continue to request a one year MORATORIUM
on new biomass incinerator projects to allow time
for relevant pollution data to be collected.
In summary, the Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance tells us:
ReplyDeleteYou citizens are non-significant, but we will mitigate the tons of pollution we allow to rain down on you, your water and your land -- and we will only allow the simultaneous operation of two biomass incinerations in the heart of downtown Shelton 120 days a year....
This is such crap, this is such crap...
The expletives and deletes are straining to pour forth - crap does not begin to describe what the City is prepared to do FOR Simpson/Solomon/Green Diamond -- and what the City is prepared to do TO the Citizens.
Stand up Sheltonians, and Mason County residents, come to the city meeting and share your frustration.
If you breathe air in the City of Shelton, this concerns you!!!